Church

Here are some of my random thoughts about church:
1. I love to listen to praise and worship music. It just really helps me focus my attention on worshipping God. I get excited when the praise band at church sings a song that I have been belting out in my car. The only problem is that I am used to the CD version where the singer adds their own worship experience to the song by adding extra phrases here and there. For example, in an instrumental break they might say "Praise God!", which makes me want to do the same when I am singing at church. They also might change the notes up on the CD version, so as I am singing at church I will go up for a high note when everyone else is on a low note. I try to focus on worshipping God without worrying about my surroundings, but this can be a little difficult when I suddenly realize that I just pulled a "Mariah" and attempted a high octave ... and my voice cracked like a 12 year old boy.
2. My church streams two of their Sunday services live online, which has been both good and bad for me. Good, because there are just some Sundays when I can't get it together in time to make it to church. (Which is extremely ridiculous considering my church has like 142 services to choose from and the one I typically go to is at 11:30) Bad, because I feel like those Sundays might be increasing now that I know I can always watch it online. Well, a few weeks ago they launched what they are calling the "Online Campus", which I was part of a week ago. They have a chat bar on the right hand side, which is incredibly distracting because it is like people are talking in church... the whole time. I found myself wanting to say something to everyone (probably the teacher in me). And it would be people who knew each other saying "Hey Laura... yeah we couldn't get the kids ready in time to make it this morning." Uhm... send Laura a text and quit distracting me. Finally I realized I could maximize the screen and the chat bar went away.
3. We are about to launch our fall small groups. I am hosting a group with my friend Lauren and we are going to be reading the book, Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I have heard lots of great things about this book, so I am really excited to get started. So far I have only had a few people email about the group, so it is always interesting the first night to see who shows up. This semester I have also considered joining a Young Professionals Men's Group. What do you think they would say when I show up at the door. Hot Christian guy: "Uhm, hi, this is a men's small group." Me: "Yeah, I know. That's why I'm here... Duh"

Don't Waste Your Time

I should know by now that most books that have been deemed "New York Times Bestsellers" are probably not for me. I have chosen many books over the years based on this criteria and more often than not I have been disappointed.

My recent choice was based on hype, recommendations, and the buzz about it being turned into a movie. So, I went out and bought my copy of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and was prepared for a "thrilling page-turner". One of my friends that had read it forewarned me that it was slow in the beginning, but to give it time and then I wouldn't be able to put it down. Well, apparently this meant that I needed to give it 422 pages out of 644 and then I would be hooked. I am also really bad about not wanting to abandon a book, so even if I am not loving it, I will keep reading. Well, I finally finished it last week. Of course at the end they have an excerpt from the second book in the series, which caught my interest immediately. Do I dare try another book in this series?